Biggest threat to U.S. tech sector is Chinese espionage: Report

(National Sentinel) Theft: The Chinese are the biggest thieves of U.S. technology, according to a new report, stealing hundreds of billions worth of data a year.

The report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies warns Chinese cyber espionage is the “single greatest threat to U.S. technology,” draining more than $300 billion a year from the economy.

“China is engaged in wide-ranging cyber intrusions and network exploitations causing massive damage to U.S. and other foreign firms annually. By advantaging Chinese enterprises at the expense of competitors from the United States and its allies and partners, these attacks cumulatively degrade U.S. national security,” said the report, according to Breitbart News.

The site noted further:

The Foundation attributed up to 80 percent of cross-border intellectual property theft worldwide, and over 90 percent of economic cyberespionage in the United States, to Chinese hackers. This rampant theft has allowed China’s state-run firms to steal what they need to erase the competitive advantages of pioneering American companies and “erode the United States’ long-term position as a world leader in innovation and competitiveness,” including leadership in technology with military applications.

The report also describes China using cyberespionage as an instrument of “economic coercion,” citing the example of “significant cyber attacks from China” last year against the Lotte Group, the South Korean conglomerate that agreed to host America’s THAAD anti-missile system on its property. The Chinese government also ceased e-commerce cooperation with Lotte and shut down almost all of its retail locations in China on flimsy pretexts.

And in 2015, China hacked the entire database belonging to the Office of Personnel Management, resulting in the theft of tens of millions of personnel records on current and former federal employees — including military personnel and those with top secret clearances.

The FBI’s National Security Division says China maintains a 30,000-person military hacker ‘army’ supported by 150,000 private-sector hackers who are all charged with stealing U.S. military secrets.

DHS Secretary Kristjen Nielson said this week that the U.S. is facing cyber threats on the level of the 9/11 attacks.

“DHS was founded fifteen years ago to prevent another 9/11. I believe an attack of that magnitude is now more likely to reach us online than on an airplane. Our digital lives are in danger like never before,” said Nielsen, noting that Congress should elevate the cybersecurity division of Homeland Security to an agency the level of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to deal with threats “at the highest levels since the Cold War.”